It is well known to provide fabric covers which engage over the grill of a vehicle. Such covers can be imperforate for acting as a winter front to reduce the amount of cooling air passing through the grill or can constitute a bug screen in which case the fabric cover is formed from a perforated screen material to allow air to flow through while preventing passing of insects and other debris.
It is also well known to provide a cover for the box of a pick-up truck which is known as a tonneau cover.
In many cases these fabric covers are fastened using press fasteners which comprise a female cap member attached to the fabric cover around a peripheral edge portion thereof together with a male stud member which has a peripheral rim extending into the cap member for readily releasable and reengageable snap fastening arrangements. A plurality of such fasteners are arranged at spaced positions around the periphery of the fabric cover. Such arrangements have been manufactured and widely sold for many years.
On prior art technique for attachment of the male stud member to a surface of the vehicle involves drilling a hole in the vehicle surface and using a self-tapping screw engaged through a central hole in the stud member to clamp the stud member to the vehicle surface. However this technique has a significant disadvantage that the vehicle owner in many cases does not want to perforate the vehicle surface in view of the difficulties which can be caused to the rust and corrosion prevention coatings of the surface. There is a reluctance therefore to purchase covers of this type which require the user to drill holes in the vehicle surface.
One solution which has been provided therefore in regard to the tonneau cover on the truck box is to manufacture a rail system which is initially attached to the vehicle using openings already available in the vehicle following which the tonneau cover is attached to the rails using the conventional press fastener systems. This system however of course requires significant extra parts to be manufactured, transported and assembled for the finished product. However the reluctance of users to perforate the vehicle surface has lead to such complex solutions to this long standing problem.
Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,643, incorporated herein by reference, outlined a further solution in which a male stud portion having a rigid disc-shaped base and a cylinder projecting from one side of the disc to carry the peripheral engagement rim is adhesively secured to the vehicle surface, either by an adhesive layer fixed directly to the bottom surface of the disc or an adhesive layer fixed to a bottom surface of a flexible plastic sheet to which the male stud portion can be engaged by fitting a stud member on the flexible sheet through a hole in the disc of the male stud portion. The disc of the male stud portion can be mounted directly when the vehicle surface in question is flat, but the separate stud-equipped flexible sheet is needed to mounted the rigid male portion on an arcuate or curved surface.
The present invention improves on the prior art by providing a one-piece male stud portion that can be mounted to flat, curved or bent surfaces without requiring a separate piece for accomplishing the adhesive attachment to the vehicle surface.